Introducing
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Maria Montessori was born in Chiaravalle, near Ancona, Italy on August 31, 1870 (Shute, 2002).
From 1900 to 1907, Montessori developed a new educational philosophy, and she lectured on pedagogy at the University of Rome from 1904 to 1910 (Ahlquist, 2011).
In 1884, he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University (O'Hara, 1929).
He received his education in his hometown university.
After completing his university education in Vermont in 1879, he continued his higher education in the fields of philosophy and political science and history.
Today, more than a century after the first Montessori school was established, it is estimated that over 5,000 Montessori schools exist in the United States, including 300 public schools (Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006). Montessori worked tirelessly to implement her ideas in the hope that one day all children would receive the strong education that they deserve (Kocher, 1973; Shute, 2002).
Dewey died in New York City in 1952 (Brickman & Lehrer, 1975; Santee & Givens, 1952).
In 1904, he became a professor of philosophy at Columbia University, where he stayed until his retirement in 1930.
He left for only one year to work at the University of Minnesota, and then returned to the University of Michigan until he was invited to be the head of the School of Education at the University of Chicago in 1894.
According to the Association Montessori Internationale (1970), Montessori was the first female medical doctor in Italy—a tremendous achievement in that era in a male-dominated society. After graduating from medical school, she cared for children with developmental disabilities with a specific focus on education (Shute, 2002).
The “Children’s House,” which opened in 1907 in the San Lorenzo slum district of Rome was a preschool for children ages 3 through 6 that became the first of many Montessori schools that eventually would be established all over the world (Ahlquist, 2011; Shute, 2002).
John dewey was born in Burlingon, Vermont in 1859 (O'Hara, 1929; Pring, 2007).
O'Hara (1929) claimed that Dewey had a great role in enriching American philosophy and educational thought, due to his work in philosophy, including Psychology (1886), Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding (1888), and How We Think (1910),
and in and education, including The Child and the Curriculum (1902), The Educational Situation (1902), and Moral Principles in Education (1909) (Brickman & Lehrer, 1975).
According to O'Hara (1929), once Dewey received his Ph.D., he joined the University of Michigan as a lecturer in philosophy from 1884 to 1888, where he stayed until 1894.
She later worked as a school principal, and adopted methods that successfully balanced rationality and practicality (Ahlquist, 2011).
She also developed educational tools that helped children acquire knowledge through sensory experiences.
Montessori, whose approach radically reformed educational systems, was the most important educator of her era (Standing, 1966). Over 60 years after her death on May 6, 1952, her theories and approach continue to influence educational philosophy (Kocher, 1973).
Both Dewey and Montessori had a similar idea of the classroom population, which should include different ages (Kocher, 1973; Malloy, 1974; Wirth, 1966; Wolf, 1975).
Both Montessori and Dewey were against traditional thoughts about the teacher’s role as being the center of the educational process (Handlin, 1959).
Children were placed together in classes that contained ages varying by two to three years to enable older children to work with and help younger ones (Wirth, 1966).
Although Dewey and Montessori both included students of different ages in the classrooms,
Dewey grouped children into the following ranges: ages 4 to 8–8.5; ages 8.5 to 10.5–11; and ages 11 to 14–15 (Wirth, 1966).
Montessori, on the other hand, grouped ages from birth to 6 years, 6 to 12 years, and 12 to 18 years (Kocher, 1973, p. 15).
Montessori believed that the teacher's job is limited to supervising the child (Malloy, 1974), in other words, he is more like a director.
While, Dewey believed that the teacher is a guide (Huang, 2002); therefore, the educator’s duty is to define the best experience for his\her student.
According to Dewey, play is meaningless because the action of the moment is complete in itself (Dewey, 1916), in other words, the child may know in advance what is the result of this game, for example, an child who play hunting game can anticipate the result.
Due to this, according to Dewey, when a child is playing, he may be going through some movements quite blindly due to imitation (Dewey, 1916), because playing the same game over and over will prevent the child from thinking and creating new ideas, and he will only do the same steps again.
Different ages in the Montessori’s and Dewey's classrooms show their different paths in determining the role of the teacher and appropriate manner in which the student should learn.
By that I mean, In Montessori’s classroom, the learning is individual, where each child can work individually on his activity (Malloy, 1974), because Montessori claimed that children like to teach themselves more than anything else (Fisher, 1913, as cited in Kocher, 1973).
I mean, the teachers in Dewey's school have more authority than in Montessori's school.
To be more clear, in Montessori, the child can choose what to learn and the teacher should direct him/her, but in Dewey, the teacher create the appropriate experience and give it to student to discover.
In contrast, Montessori suggested that materials for play should be specifically arranged and limited in order to direct the activity toward a specific outcome (Lillard, 2013).
Both Montessori and Dewey thought that children learn through experience and that all knowledge is derived from experience (Montessori, 1966; Pring, 2007).
Although the children are working individually, the different agers in the classroom are another resource for some social skills (Kocher, 1973; Wolf, 1975).
For example, the older children gain confidence by helping the younger one, while the younger ones are more comfortable communicating with another child instead of a teacher.
From my own perspective, it seems that Montessori’s philosophy was based on daily experimentation in the classroom. She seemed to use a scientific approach of trying methods, gathering data and trying to replicate results.
In contrast, Dewey’s writing involves more thinking and “thought experiments” which might be applied logically.
On the other hand, Dewey’s classroom age group was intended to enhance the cooperation between students (Johnson, D. & Johnson, R., 2009), which focused on the experiences and needs of each child.
Both died in 1952 (Brickman & Lehrer, 1975; Kocher, 1973; Santee & Givens, 1952)
Both Montessori and Dewey believed that, the child should explore his world with all his senses, using his hands, ears, and eyes.
Thus, the child will need specific activities, such as playing games and telling stories (Malloy, 1974; Wirth, 1966). In order stimulate learning through as many of the senses as possible, the materials and activities should engage the child with his real life, such as, playing with water, sand and so on.